Tigers Split At UMD

The old saying among WCHA fans is "split on the road, sweep at home", and this weekend the Tigers lived up to one half of that, rebounding on Saturday night for a split with the Bulldogs of Minnesota-Duluth. After suffering a comeback loss on Friday night, CC turned the table on Saturday and won a game that the Tigers were trailing in for two periods with four third period goals. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see or listen to the games this weekend so I can't really say much firsthand about how the Tigers looked. Feel free to comment on this post with your opinions if you did get to see the games.

The result moved CC into a three-way tie for second place in the WCHA, along with Denver and St. Cloud State, both of whom the Tigers will face again this season. The Huskies had a disappointing weekend, snapping their long win streak with a loss and a tie to Minnesota State-Mankato. Another team that had an even bigger streak snapped was Minnesota, who lost their first game since the season opener, 2-1 at rival Wisconsin. Denver didn't play any WCHA games but had a nice sweep of Niagara, solidifying their ranking in the Pairwise. Speaking of the Pairwise, the Tigers are still looking okay, although they will need wins over the second half to keep it that way. CC is currently at 9th, and will have plenty of opportunities to pick up additional quality wins during the second half of the season. One such oppurtunity will be the next WCHA series, when CC travels to Houghton for a series with Michigan Tech, who are low in the Pairwise, but still considered a TUC. After that series, the Tigers face a murderer's row of (the seemingly rejuvenated) Wisconsin, (at) St. Cloud State, and Minnesota.

Notes:

* Bill Sweatt is now listed as a "limited viewing" player by the NHL's Central Scouting Bureau. This is presumably due to time missed this season.

* As much as I'm expecting CC to be a top team next year, I'm getting concerned about goaltending. Drew O'Connell apparently did not have a great game this weekend, and Richard Bachman is really struggling in the USHL. I believe that both these guys will eventually be really good goalies, but I still need some convincing. Neither currently have a save percentage above .900.

* Andreas Vlassopoulos is off to a heck of a start so far this season, with six points in nine games. I haven't had a chance to see him play all that much so far this year, but I'm looking forward to it.

* Despite limited action so far, Billy Sweatt is now second on the team in points per game with .87, behind Jimmy Kilpatrick who has 1.05 per game. Scott McCulloch and Chad Rau are both scoring .83 points per game.

* Is USCHO ever going to update their PWR and KRACH rankings? Really fellas, it's getting embarrassing.

* Minnesota, Denver, CC, and St. Cloud State have all emerged as the top of the WCHA so far, and it should be an interesting fight to the finish as all four of these teams will be playing each other again before the season is over. Denver in particular is about to begin a tough stretch of league play, as they travel to Minnesota and then take on SCSU at home in the next few weeks. Minnesota currently has a commanding seven point lead in the standings, but some stumbles down the stretch could certainly open the door for any of these four teams to take the conference regular season title.